Rescue and Recovery
by Vol lady
Summary: I recently saw "Time After Midnight" for the first time in more years than I care to admit to. I thought it ended a bit abruptly. This story fills in a gap and extends the story a bit, finding Jarrod intending to make changes to his life whether he has his vision or not.


RESCUE AND RECOVERY

RESCUE

Victoria's feeling that something wasn't right began even before Silas steered the wagon into town, but "Heath is injured" kept overruling that feeling. They had to get to him.

"But we shouldn't have left Jarrod home alone.

"But he wanted it that way, and he's been all right there alone off and on now for several days.

"But something isn't right about this.

"But Heath is injured."

Silas drove them into town. It was like any evening in town – streets fairly busy but calming down, saloons still open, telegraph office and sheriff's office still lit up. Silas pulled up outside the doctor's office –

But the doctor's office was dark.

That was how it should have been on a normal evening, but this should not have been a normal evening. Heath was injured. The doctor's office should have had lights in it.

"Mother – " Audra said.

"Wait here," Victoria said and got out of the buggy.

She tried the door to the doctor's office. It was locked. She turned in confusion and saw again that the sheriff's office was lit. Maybe they were there.

She ran across the street.

"Mother!" Audra called and urged Silas to drive after her.

In moments Victoria burst into the sheriff's office, Audra right behind her.

And Sheriff Madden was sitting at his desk. He was alone. No doctor, no Heath. Sheriff Madden looked up, surprised. "Victoria? What's wrong?"

Heath wasn't here. Heath wasn't injured. Jarrod was home alone. "Oh, dear God, Jarrod – " she said.

She turned and hurried out, Audra and Sheriff Madden right behind her.

"Victoria, what is it?" the sheriff asked again.

She stopped at the carriage, frantic. "We got a message that Heath was hurt, but Heath isn't hurt, and Jarrod is home alone! I have to get home to him!"

"No, wait, wait," Sheriff Madden said and grabbed her by the arms.

"Let me go!"

"Victoria, listen to me. I'll go to the saloon and get some men and we can be out there a lot faster than you can in this buggy."

"I have to get home!"

"Audra, Silas," Sheriff Madden said. "Drive home at a safe speed. I'll get some men. We'll be passing you on the road. Do not drive too fast! I don't want to have to rescue you all from an accident."

Silas and Audra both nodded, but Victoria was still distraught. Audra helped her back into the buggy and she watched Sheriff Madden run to the saloon.

"It'll be all right, Mother. It'll be all right," Audra repeated as she climbed into the buggy and took tight hold of her mother.

"We shouldn't have left him alone – " Victoria moaned.

XXXXXXX

Sheriff Madden and four other men passed the buggy not a mile out of town, riding at least twice as fast, knowing it was risky in the darkness, but having at least a partial moon in their favor, they went for it. Sheriff Madden was both livid and frightened about what he thought he'd find.

Jarrod Barkley had been injured in an explosion a week earlier, and totally blind ever since. Still, he'd been able to prosecute Joshua Cunningham himself, and the trial was about to end in a certain conviction. Everyone knew it was Cunningham who was responsible for the explosion, but nobody thought he'd try again to kill Jarrod.

But, dear God, he was trying again. The sheriff knew it, and he rode as fast as he could.

Except for a couple rooms upstairs and the library downstairs, the Barkley house was dark. That wasn't right. Lights should have been on in the parlor and the foyer. It was the way they always kept it.

The sheriff slowed the men, and they approached quietly. They dismounted in front of the door. The sheriff tried it but it was locked. There was not a sound in the place.

"Sheriff – " one of his men said. He was standing to the left, near an open door to the living room. The sheriff saw broken glass.

Sheriff Madden felt the worst had happened. He drew his gun and motioned for the others to do the same, which they did. Carefully, they slowly entered through the broken door.

They could see a little bit of the foyer and parlor in the light coming from the library. They saw broken lamps on the floor.

Sheriff Madden came in a little further. "Jarrod?!" he called.

No answer.

"Jarrod, it's Fred Madden!" the sheriff tried again, louder. "Are you all right?!"

A voice came from the library. "I'm all right, Fred! In the library!"

It was an incredible relief to hear his voice, but he still could be in danger. Cunningham could be there with him. Sheriff Madden whispered to the men with him, "Be careful, keep an eye out behind us, and keep quiet. I don't know if we have a hostage situation here."

They nodded, and they all moved slowly toward the library.

In only a few moments they could see into the library and see the body on the floor. Sheriff Madden thought the worst and leveled his gun.

But Jarrod Barkley's calm voice said, "It's all right, Fred. I'm all right. Come on in."

Sheriff Madden saw pool cues on the floor, moved off to the side away from the door and the body, and then he saw Jarrod sitting in a chair across the room. Jarrod held a pistol limply in his hand, and he looked worse than limp himself, but otherwise he seemed all right.

The body on the floor was Joshua Cunningham's.

Jarrod said, "He's dead, Fred. I had to kill him."

Sheriff Madden and the others came in slowly. "Was he alone?"

"No," Jarrod said. "Correll and Mason were with him. I got them to leave before Cunningham tried to overpower me and I had to kill him."

The sheriff turned to the men with him. "Go get some light in the house, unlock that front door, and try to intercept Mrs. Barkley when she gets here."

"There are usable lamps in the kitchen, and the key to the front door is somewhere around the bottom of the staircase where I threw it," Jarrod said.

The other men left, and Sheriff Madden holstered his gun. "Jarrod, I'm going to take this gun away from you."

Jarrod gave it up easily. "It's not mine – belonged to Correll or Mason. There's another one somewhere near the door, and somewhere near Cunningham there's one of ours that goes in the case on the wall to my left."

Sheriff Madden stood there for a moment. "Are you hurt?"

"Little bit," Jarrod said. "I took a fall down the stairs. Bruises, stiff and sore. Heath wasn't hurt, was he?"

"Not that I'm aware of. Your mother and sister and Silas should be here in a few minutes."

"Poor Mother, she's probably frantic."

"Do you want to go into the parlor?"

"When they get some light back on. Let me know."

Sheriff Madden still had not gotten used to Jarrod being blind. There was still the inclination to treat him like he was helpless, even thought it was obvious he was far from helpless lately. The sheriff finally sighed and fessed up. "Jarrod, you're blind. How the hell did you kill Cunningham?"

A small smile played at Jarrod's mouth. "Guile, trickery, and being scared out of my wits," he said. "But do you mind if I save the explanations until Mother gets here?"

Sheriff Madden noted some light coming back on in the parlor area. "We have some light back in the parlor."

"Would you mind guiding me?" Jarrod asked as he stood up. "I'm a bit – shaky."

The sheriff took him by the upper right arm. Out of habit, Jarrod felt the air in front of him with his left hand, holding onto the pool table as they confronted it and the doorframe when they confronted it. After an uneasy transition, the sheriff got him to the parlor and into one of the armchairs near the fireplace. The men who had come with him were cleaning up the broken glass of the lamps Jarrod had shattered earlier, and one of them was picking up a coffee pot that was on the floor.

Jarrod sat down in the armchair and closed his eyes.

"Can I get you some coffee, Jarrod?" Sheriff Madden asked.

"No," Jarrod said, "but there should be some brandy over on the table to my left. I could use a little of that."

Sheriff Madden went to the table, poured some of the brandy into a snifter there, and brought it back. He put it into Jarrod's hands and made sure he had a good grip on it with both hands before he let go.

Jarrod was shaking like a leaf and had to steady the snifter on his thigh before he lifted it to take a sip, and then steadied it back down on his thigh again. He smiled a little. "The past week or so has been an adventure in being scared to death," he said.

"The buggy is here," one of the sheriff's men said.

"Help them in here," Sheriff Madden said, and the man went out to meet them.

"Poor Mother," Jarrod said again. "First me, then Heath, then not Heath. Thank God Heath isn't hurt, but the poor woman's head must be spinning."

"At least part of this nightmare is over," Sheriff Madden said. "The world won't have to worry about Joshua Cunningham anymore."

"I didn't want to kill him, Fred, " Jarrod said.

"I know that," Sheriff Madden said. "I won't be filing any charges."

Victoria, Audra and Silas came hurrying through the door then. "Jarrod?!" his mother called before she could see where he was.

"Right here, Mother," Jarrod said. "I'm all right."

"Oh, thank God," she said as she and Audra rushed to him.

"Bumps and bruises only," he assured them as they hugged him. "Brandy cure," he said and held up the snifter for them to see.

"What happened?" Audra asked.

"Mason, Correll and Cunningham happened," Jarrod said, "just after you left."

"Jarrod, I'm so sorry, we should have known," Victoria said. "I didn't even recognize the man who brought us the news that Heath was hurt. I should have known."

Jarrod quickly shook his head. "Don't blame yourself, Mother. It's done. I'm fine. Cunningham Is dead in the library."

That part startled her completely. "What happened, Jarrod?" she asked.

"Well, they got in, found me upstairs when I went to close a shutter. They planned on me having an 'accidental' fall down the well out back. When they tried to take me down the stairs, I fought back, but all I achieved was a nasty fall and they got me back right away. I had better luck when they tried to get me out the front door. Two of them went out ahead of me and the third stayed with me. I hit the third with one of the statuettes near the door, knocked him down, locked the door, blew out the lamps and broke them so I'd have the advantage. Hid behind the settee. They broke back in and couldn't find me. They split up and I got one of them full in the face with the hot coffee, then I got to the library. I shut and locked the door, got a pistol, spread pool cues all around the floor near the door and when he broke through, Cunningham slipped and fell. I got him down on the floor with the pistol to his head, told Correll and Mason to drop their guns and ride out, and they did. Then I tried to get Cunningham to a chair, but I lost place of where the pool table was and when I walked into it, he pushed me down and got the gun away from me. When I hit the floor, I grabbed one of the guns Correll or Mason left and just fired it over and over – ." Jarrod took a deep breath. "I got lucky, I heard him fall, and checked on him and found he was dead. Then I just sat down in the library until someone came along, and then Fred was here."

The man outside the front door stuck his head in. "Riders coming, Sheriff. Two, coming fast."

Jarrod said quickly, "It's not Correll and Mason. They took off like I told them to. God knows where they are by now."

"I'll get a posse up in the morning, and I'll find out who that messenger was. This must be Nick and Heath," Sheriff Madden said. "I had someone go for them."

In a moment, the horses stopped and Nick and Heath came through the front door. "Jarrod!" Nick bellowed.

"Right here!" Jarrod said. "I'm fine. We're all fine."

Nick and Heath hurried over. "Thank God," Heath said.

"I'm gonna kill Cunningham," Nick snarled.

"I already did," Jarrod said.

Nick looked at his mother,stunned. She nodded wearily. "Brother of mine, you are full of surprises," Nick said, full of relief.

"So I am," Jarrod said and closed his eyes. "Fred, are you through with me now?"

"For tonight," Sheriff Madden said.

Jarrod lifted the snifter up. It was empty now. "Would someone please take this?"

Audra took it and put it on the coffee table.

Jarrod began to stand. "If someone would help me up to my room, I'd appreciate it. I'm getting pretty stiff after that fall down the stairs."

"Fall?" Nick asked.

"Long story, Nick," Jarrod said, standing slowly.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Victoria asked.

"Pretty sure nothing's broken," Jarrod said. "I'm just tired and sore."

"Let me help you, Jarrod," Heath said and took him by the arm. "Since it turns out I'm not hurt after all."

"Praise the Lord for that," Jarrod said, patting Heath's hand on his arm. "Good night, everyone."

They wished him good night as he let Heath lead him away. He moved slowly up the stairs, and they watched.

"Do you want me to send the doctor out, Victoria?" Sheriff Madden asked.

"We'll see in the morning," Victoria said. "If he needs the doctor, we can go in or send for him. I think Jarrod's just winding down from what happened to him tonight, and stiffening up from the fall."

"He's a pretty remarkable man, making it through this night alive, and killing Cunningham."

"Yes," Victoria said. "He's come a very long way in the past week."

"Longer than I could have come," Nick said, and he wandered alone into the library, looking for a moment to be by himself and get his nerves under control.

Nick was startled to see Cunningham lying dead there on the floor, blood pooling under him. The door to the porch was open. One of Sheriff Madden's men was going out as Nick came in.

So, it happened in here. Being startled gave way to a wave of other emotions.

Nick spent a long time staring down at Cunningham. If he ever detested a man more in this world, he didn't know who it was. Cunningham was responsible for Jarrod being blind – maybe forever. Nick had been looking forward to the satisfaction of helping his brother in court, of hearing a jury pronounce Cunningham guilty and of seeing the man in jail. Now he'd been cheated of that.

But it had been his big brother – his blind big brother – who had rid the world of this piece of slime. Nick felt proud.

""My brother did this to you, Cunningham," he said to the dead body. "My brother. Guess you had to learn the hard way, you don't mess with a Barkley, even a sightless one."

RECOVERY

Saturday and Sunday proved that Jarrod's only injuries were bruises that Nick said it was a good thing he could not see. Stiff and sore, but nothing more, Jarrod did not believe the doctor needed to be called.

After a quiet weekend came the court proceedings on Monday morning. They were brief. Jarrod informed the court and jury that Cunningham was dead (he did not give the details) and that Correll and Mason had fled. He moved that the proceedings against Cunningham be dismissed and the proceedings against Correll and Mason be continued until they could be apprehended. The judge granted the motions and that was that.

"Well," Jarrod said as the gavel fell. "Guess we can head on home."

After lunch at home, Nick and Heath changed clothes and went back out to work on the ranch. Audra also changed clothes and went for a ride on her horse. Jarrod was left alone in the parlor.

Victoria came from working in the kitchen to find him sitting there quietly in a chair by the fireplace. She touched him gently on the back. He jumped.

"I'm sorry," Victoria said, "I didn't mean to startle you."

Jarrod smiled. "Your footfall is very quiet."

Victoria sat down on the coffee table in front of him. "You've been very quiet yourself. Hardly said a word coming home from town or during lunch. What are you thinking so deeply about?"

"You can read me like a book, can't you?"

"Mothers are good at that."

Jarrod gave a sigh and said, "Let's take a walk out to the barns."

"All right," Victoria said.

Jarrod stood up, and Victoria placed his hand on her arm. He was getting pretty good as navigating that way, so it did not take much time to get to the door and out into the afternoon air.

"So," Victoria said as they strolled. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, I've been thinking about my future," Jarrod said. "Now that the Cunningham case is over – "

"Except for the Correll and Mason part," Victoria interrupted.

"Except for the Correll and Mason part," Jarrod agreed, "but heaven only knows when that will resume. Anyway, I've made a couple decisions about my life that I think you should know about."

"I'm listening," she said when he did not continue right away.

"What happened with Cunningham the other night has made me painfully aware of my vulnerability and my mortality, and what I can and cannot do because I'm blind."

"I think you've pretty well proven you can do quite a bit."

"That was a lot of luck, Mother. By all rights, they should have killed me."

"But they didn't."

"No, but when that message came in about Heath, and I sent you and Audra away, I knew it was a setup. I knew Cunningham would be coming for me. I sent you away intentionally, because I knew they would kill you, too, and I couldn't stop them. If any Barkleys were going to die that night, it was just going to be me."

Victoria tried to let that settle in. It didn't want to settle. It was too frightening to settle.

Jarrod continued. "Anyway, my law practice is going to have to change. If my vision doesn't return sufficiently for me to resume it, well, then I won't resume it, except for whatever family work I can do. But if my vision does return and I resume my practice, it will have to be different. I know I can't put you and the family in danger again."

"Jarrod – " Victoria started.

"No, let me finish. There have been plenty of cases I've taken through the years that got me in trouble, even hurt, and you've been threatened before as well. I'm not going to let that happen anymore."

"What are you planning to do about it?"

"First, I'll resign right away as Acting District Attorney and I won't be taking any more criminal cases, either prosecution or defense, unless the circumstances are unusual. And there's more."

"All right. What else is there?"

Jarrod stopped and faced his mother. She still couldn't stand to see that his eyes were blank and could not see her, and when he reached to touch her shoulder and touched her cheek first instead, she shivered. "Mother, I've spent entirely too much time and effort on my career. I've let too many years slip by without finding a wife and making a family of my own. I want a woman to love me and marry me. I want children. I can't keep up all the work I've been doing over the years and have that. Do you understand?

"Oh, yes, I understand."

"Are you disappointed?"

"At the thought of becoming a mother-in-law and a grandmother? How could I be disappointed?"

Jarrod smiled.

"But I want you to be sure, and perhaps now is not the time to think you're sure."

They began walking again, and Jarrod said, "Perhaps not, but I don't think I'll feel any differently if my vision returns. And frankly, Mother, it doesn't show any signs of returning."

"It hasn't been very long," Victoria said. "I'm not giving up on it yet. I still believe that someday you'll look at me and see me again."

Jarrod patted her arm. "Lovely lady, I can still see you in my heart, and I always will."

Victoria couldn't keep tears away this time, but she hid them from her son.

XXXXXXXX

Jarrod made more decisions. He had Audra write a letter to a school for the blind in Sacramento. If he was going to be blind, he might as well learn how to read and get around better on his own. Audra was sweet to be so helpful, writing his letters and reading to him when he felt bored, but it would not be fair to rely on her completely for very long. He had to learn more independence.

But then it happened two weeks later, in an instant, as he was coming down the stairs. One moment he was making his way carefully, as usual, feeling the steps underneath him. Then suddenly, as he took the last step, it happened.

Not clear. Definitely blurry. But a moment before, he could only hear his family's voices in the parlor. Then suddenly, he could see Nick and Heath standing and telling some story to their mother and sister, who were seated on the settee. There they were, talking, enjoying coffee in the soft after dinner light. He SAW them.

Jarrod just stood at the bottom of the steps, not sure it was real. Then suddenly he was trembling. It was uncontrollable. Then he was just as uncontrollably sobbing. He sat down hard on the stairs, shaking and sobbing.

Victoria saw it first, jumped up and hurried to him. Her children followed as soon as they saw it.

"Jarrod, what's wrong?" Victoria asked as she took him in her arms.

He let his mother hold him and he sobbed.

Nick and Heath looked at each other, confused. Then Nick bent down in front of Jarrod. "Jarrod, what's the matter? What's happening?"

Jarrod looked up and saw them. Blurry, yes, but he SAW them. Uncontrollable sobbing turned into laughter. He touched his mother's face and looked at her.

"My God, you can see," Victoria said and began to cry.

Jarrod nodded and kissed her. "I can see."

His siblings bent down to him and he touched every one of them and saw every one of them. And he laughed out loud.

The blurriness cleared and Dr. Merar pronounced him good as new only a few days later. Right away, Jarrod volunteered to go work with his brothers mending fences, and he enjoyed it. The sun was glorious, the blue sky was captivating. He enjoyed everything so much that Nick finally had to call him off.

"Come on now, Pappy, it's time to pack it in," Nick said.

"Dinner's calling," Heath added.

Jarrod looked at them, and saw them. Then he went to his horse and took his shirt from where he had laid it across the saddle. "There's something I want to do before I go in," he said, putting his shirt on. "You two go on. I'll be along in an hour or so."

Nick looked worried. "You sure you're okay alone? This is your first day out."

"I'm fine," Jarrod said. "You go on. Don't let Mother worry."

"Where you gonna be?" Heath asked. "Just in case."

Jarrod got a twinkle in his eye. "Not far. I'm fine. Go on."

Jarrod mounted up then and galloped off toward the east.

"You think we ought to follow him?" Heath asked Nick.

"No," Nick said, smiling. "He's got some secret place he likes to go to, not too far from here. He doesn't think anybody knows about it, but I found out. I'll know where to look if he doesn't come home. Let's just give him a chance to cut loose."

Jarrod rode only a few miles, to a place near a lake, higher up in the valley. It was a place he'd discovered when he was just a boy, and he had come up here a lot over the years, to be alone, to be happy or unhappy, to enjoy the sun and the water.

He called it "Isla del Cielo" – his island of the sky. As he pulled up next to the lake, he sat and breathed in the fresh air and looked at the sky and the trees.

LOOKED at them.

He heaved a sigh. "This is it," he said out loud. "This is where I'm going love my wife, raise my family, watch my children grow up and marry and raise their own families."

His horse whinnied. Jarrod gave him a pat on the neck, then dismounted and tied him to a tree limb.

He walked down to the edge of the water and sat down on a log. He picked up a few stones there and one by one pitched them into the lake. He watched the ripples move out in ever increasing circles. For a long time he took big, deep breaths and looked up at puffy white clouds.

"It will be beautiful," he said, and then he mounted up and made his way home.


End file.
